Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Verbs

Verbs are the words in a
sentence that describe the action of a sentence or that introduce the condition
or state of someone or something in the sentence.

Action: Anna throws the
ball.

Introduction of a condition: Trent is very
sick.

There are many action verbs.
Those that can have a direct object are often called transitive verbs. Here
is a list of some commonly used transitive verbs. Note that they can be used
with a direct object.

Transitive Verbs Used in a Sentence

buy He
buys a newspaper.

carry I
am carrying the child.

find Can
you find the book?

help She
helps us.

like I
don’t like cabbage.

lose Don’t
lose your money.

read She
is reading a book.

pull The
dentist pulled the tooth.

push The
boy pushes the cart.

sell I
am selling my car.

speak Father
speaks Spanish.

write We
are writing some postcards.

understand Do you understand me?

Intransitive verbs are not followed by a
direct object. They often show a movement to a place and are sometimes followed
by a prepositional phrase. Following is a list of some commonly used intransitive
verbs:

Intransitive Verbs Used in a Sentence

come Can
you come to the party?

crawl The
baby crawls on the floor.

drive We
are driving fast.

fly I
flew here from Paris.

go Are
you going home?

hurry We
hurry to the window.

jump Peter
jumps from the roof.

ride I
am riding in his car.

run The
girls run past the school.

sail We
are sailing to Europe.

travel Do
you want to travel with us?

walk I
walk out of the theater.

Still other verbs introduce the
condition or state of someone or something. They do not take a direct object
and are most often followed by an adjective. These verbs are usually called linkingverbs. Here are some commonly used linking verbs:

Linking Verbs Used
in a Sentence

appear The
boy appears quite well.

be I
am hungry.

become The
weather becomes bad.

feel It
feels hot.

grow The
dog is growing weak.

look She
looks unhappy.

seem The
coat seems too small for you.

smell The
pizza smells good.

sound The
music sounds awful.

taste The
popcorn tastes salty.

Careful! Some of the linking verbs have
a second usage. They can be used as transitive verbs. Look at these examples:

You can identify linking verbs by
substituting am, is, or are for the verb. If the sentence
makes sense with the substitution, it is a linking verb. If it does not make
sense, it is a transitive verb. Some examples:

It
feels cold. (It is cold.) This makes sense. = Linking Verb

He
feels her pulse. (He is her pulse.) This makes no sense. =
Transitive Verb

They
smell nice. (They are nice.) This makes sense. = Linking Verb

We smell coffee.
(We are coffee.) This makes no sense. = Transitive Verb